Watch Before Viewing Orphan

July 29, 2009

Movies.ie invites you to get thoroughly terrified for the release of Orphan with some of cinema’s creepiest kids!

Orphan, released next week is currently creating quite a stir in the media. As well as the speculation about what Esther’s secret could be, it also ran foul of orphan support groups, who have argued that the film enforces negative stereotypes about adopting. A line was duly removed from the trailer which commented “It must be difficult to love an adopted child as much as your own.” It shouldn’t do any harm to the film’s success though; if Antichrist has shown us anything it’s that lately, a bit of controversy can do wonders!

Kate and John (Peter Sarsgaard & Vera Farmiga) are distraught having suffered the loss of their unborn child. In an attempt to turn their lives back in the right direction, they decide to adopt. At the orphanage, they become attached to a young girl called Esther, a quiet nine year old girl who seems to be outcast from the other children. The couple adopt Esther but when she becomes part of their family, strange things begin to happen in the household; leading Kate to believe that Esther may not be as angelic as she appears.

Here are some other devilish children to take a look at before Orphan hits our screens.

1. The Children

As well as being one of the most gruesomely entertaining films released last year, this British horror also has one of our all time favourite tag lines: “You brought them into this world. Now … They will take you out.” The film takes place in a country house over New Years, as two sisters and their families meet to celebrate the holiday together. The good times don’t last very long, as the children begin to act strangely and gang up to violently dispose of their parents in various gruesome ways. Though the film is inventive with the gore, it is also tremendously fun – it’s hard not to enjoy seeing the annoying bohemian parents get outsmarted by some psychotic toddlers!

2. The Omen

It’s really surprising to movies.ie that the parents of any baby boy would choose to call him Damien; for us the name will always be synonymous with the Devil! It’s no surprise really, when you see just how effective the young Harvey Stephens is in his role as the Son of Satan. Even in that cute little suit he manages to exude the kind of threat usually associated with hardened killers! The really creepy thing about Damien though is that he never has to lift a finger to perpetrate his evil deeds (as his nanny reminds us “It’s all for you Damien!”) and so to all intents and purposes he appears to be just a normal child with a psychotic father who’s putting too much faith in the Bible!

3. Children of the Corn

Children feature heavily in the work of Stephen King, both on the sides of good and evil and he understands just how effective it is to bring the audience back to their childhood in order to get a scare. In The Shining and It, it is children who are the victims but in Children of the Corn, the roles are reversed. As the tagline for the 1984 film reads, this is “An adult nightmare.” A demonic force lurking amongst the corn of a rural town begins to influence the children to do its evil bidding – namely to murder every adult of the town. Not a place you’d want to wander into by accident but this is exactly what happens to a young couple, who end up fighting for their lives against the possessed children.

4. Village of the Damned

Based on John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos, this film definitely made us suspicious about quiet blonde children…By the way, we’re using the original 1960 version here rather than the John Carpenter remake from 1995 because the earlier version wins hands down on the creep factor! The story concerns a strange incident that befalls the English town of Midwich; in which every living creature passes into a deep sleep that cannot be explained. Several months later it is discovered that every woman in the town has fallen pregnant. The resulting children are not what you’d call normal – like young Aryan conscripts for the Hitler youth, with strange glowing eyes and a penchant for walking around silently in groups freaking out the locals.